The Search
by Mireille Bouquet Fan
Summary: Having left his home world, the alien who would become Ra searches for a host. Largely movie-based, with some series elements. Revised and extended.
1. Chapter 1

_Stargate_ is owned by Studio Canal. The movie novelisation by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich is published by Signet.

_Stargate SG-1_ is owned by MGM, based on _Stargate_ by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich.

* * *

The Search

A _Stargate_ story

* * *

His ship, a colossal metallic pyramid, lifted up and away from the dying world. Looking through a monitor, he watched his world grow smaller as the ship receded from the planet.

In a way, he was fortunate. He would not stay and witness the extinction of his race. He would not watch his people die. Thousands of years of civilisation, dying.

His body was weak, ravaged by the same condition which afflicted his people. Fortunately, he managed to control his ship by his thoughts alone; through his link to the ship, it acted almost like an extension of his own body. Of course, he could still control the ship manually, but in his weakened state, he did not know how long he would be able to do so, hence the mental link. His body would stay in stasis, contained within a pod capable of sustaining him.

He was determined to not share the same fate as the rest of his people. Among his technological achievements was the ability to incorporate himself into a new body. In doing so, he would be able to extend his life. He would live on, the last remnant of his race.

All he needed now was a new body, a new vessel to carry his life.

He had a few criteria for the host body: the creature had to be advanced from an evolutionary perspective, preferably an oxygen-breather (so he would not have to alter his ship's life-support system), bipedal, with hands capable of fine motor control (so he could continue to manipulate objects), possessed of full colour vision and a large brain to store information (he suspected that his perception and his mental abilities could be limited by those of his host) and with sufficient ability to regenerate damage. Ideally, he would live a life as close to that afforded by his original body as possible. Maybe even a better life, depending on the body.

He had to be careful, though. When he incorporated himself into a new body, he would not just take the body. He would also absorb the knowledge, the memory, the personality traits of the host.

He searched among the star systems in this galaxy, looking for a body, a way to continue and extend his life. Despite his race's star faring, there were many worlds in this galaxy that were unexplored, some of which he suspected harboured life capable of supporting him.

He had a plan, a procedure he would follow: scan a star and look for planets. The ideal was rocky planets or moons that were a certain distance from the star, with temperatures and gravitational fields within a certain range. If he found a planet or moon that met these criteria, he would bring the ship into orbit to scan for life. If sufficiently advanced life was found, he would bring the ship into a lower orbit to scan the life more closely. If the life turned out to be unsuitable, he would simply leave.

There were many stars. They were great distances from each other, and even with his faster-than-light drive, it would take time to travel from star to star. In addition, not all of them had orbiting planets, and not all of these planets were capable of supporting life, and not all of those planets actually had life. Of those that did, not all had sufficiently advanced life to hold him. He knew, therefore, that there would be many star systems that simply did not have what he was looking for.

It would be a long search. Fortunately, with his body in stasis, and his mind connected to the ship, he could wait that long. Had he remained conscious and used manual control, he would have died, leaving the ship as an empty shell, a floating testament to his race.

He was 'conscious' while the ship scanned stars and planets, and 'unconscious' while the ship cruised between stars. The ship's sensors were his eyes and ears, giving him perception that his body, even in its physiological prime, would not have afforded him.

* * *

He lost track of time. Stars and planets became a blur.

There were many, many forms of life. The most common was the simplest; unicellular. Fewer worlds had multicellular life, and even fewer had more advanced forms. None were suitable for him as a new host.

Ultimately, his search was fruitless. There were worlds that had life, but none was suitable for him. He would have to travel outside this galaxy and find worlds in other galaxies.

The vast distances between galaxies meant that it would take a long time for him to reach the nearest galaxy. He would sleep in that time, gather strength. The ship could take care of itself, only awakening him when it ran into trouble.

And so, the ship flew on.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

* * *

After thousands of years, the ship entered a new galaxy. His consciousness was aroused once the ship arrived. He directed the ship to fly to a nearby star.

Once again, he searched, his consciousness sleeping during the voyages between stars. Once again, he found that many stars did not have planets, and many planets did not have life, and many of the worlds that did...

This would, once again, be a long search.

* * *

One of the worlds he encountered in the new galaxy offered a variety of life, in several different environments. There was liquid water present, and an atmosphere of nitrogen and oxygen. More importantly, there were somewhat advanced animals present.

Settling in a low orbit around the planet, he investigated through his ship's sensors.

The life forms most likely to serve his purpose lived in the forests, in and near caves set into the sides of hills and mountains. They were large bipeds, with leathery skin. They had ridges on their heads and horns on their lower jaws. They had four digits on their hands, with opposable thumbs. They were carnivorous hunters. They lived in familial groups in the caves, venturing outside to hunt and to drink.

He brought the ship lower, into the atmosphere. He hovered several kilometres above the surface, directing the ship's sensors down, focusing on the bipedal creatures.

They would not do. Although large, powerful and somewhat resilient, with the capacity for intelligence (some of them were tool-users), they were clumsy, with large appendages and thick digits. They had limited colour vision – he needed a broad spectrum, since the limits of his senses could potentially be defined by those of the host.

He would have to move on.

He noticed something interesting, though. There was a creature on this planet that lived in the water, in the lakes near the caves where the bipeds lived. A small aquatic creature. This creature was capable of actually attaching itself to and burrowing into the biped when the opportunity arose. When it did so, the biped's behaviour changed.

How interesting...

* * *

This galaxy had several life-bearing planets, but none of the life he had encountered so far was suitable for his purpose. Still, he kept searching.

After many years, he came across another world that was rich with life. The planet was a short distance from its star, a yellow star. It had two-thirds of its surface covered by liquid water. The atmosphere was largely composed of nitrogen and oxygen, with water vapour and other elements forming the rest. He could survive here.

There was a variety of life forms on the planet, plants and animals, fungi and bacteria. The world offered a variety of environments: cold, hot, dry, humid.

The most advanced civilisation on the planet was a species of hunter-gatherers. Air-breathing bipeds, like himself.

They lived in small groups. From afar, he took measure of them.

Perfect. Although their ability to repair damage, to heal, was limited, their anatomy and physiology made their bodies easy to repair by his standards. Their metabolism meant that they were capable of maintaining an internal body temperature – to a point. They had stereoscopic, full colour vision – important in discerning between objects. (The trade-off was limited low-light vision, but that would not be a problem.) They had large brains, the potential to learn and store information. They had fine motor control to manipulate objects with their five-fingered hands with opposable thumbs, which was essential if he were to maintain the use of his technology. He needed to be able to manipulate objects, and do so with precision.

He would take a new body from among these.

* * *

One by one, the villagers awoke, roused from their slumber. Looking up into the sky, they saw no clouds, but the wind whipped up dust from the desert.

Coming from the sky was a light, faint at first, but growing stronger as the winds picked up speed. Light that did not come from the moon, now partially obscured by the flying dust.

A massive object descended from the sky, the source of the brightening light. Lightning snaked down from the object, touching the ground.

By now, the entire camp was in a panic. The night sky had been lit up to become bright as day. People screamed in panic, some clutching children and belongings as they ran from the unearthly light.

* * *

He looked down on the ground with his ship's sensors. The ground below was bathed in harsh white light. Villagers ran about, clutching children and belongings as they fled the campsite, screaming in terror. They scattered, fleeing into the countryside.

One of them, however, remained.

This one staggered _towards_ the light, shielding its face from the dust and flying stones, its hair whipping about its head in the wind.

He decided he would take this one.

With his mind, he gave his last commands to the ship.

He then subjected himself to the first stage of the procedure, his body becoming like light, losing mass. He took on an ethereal, ghostly appearance, glowing brightly. He was a form of energy now, massless, but not formless; he retained his original shape.

He looked again at the biped on the monitor who staggered towards the light. His race had mastered transportation technology, the ability to instantaneously transport matter from one location to another, but it required transport between platforms, contained within isolation fields that were themselves contained by a series of nine rings, stacked on top of each other. The biped was not in range and would likely not stay still long enough for the rings to descend and enclose him.

He would have to leave the ship and go to him.

He moved, leaving the ship.

The biped was consumed by a flash of blue-white light, his ethereal body bursting from the ship.

He flowed into the biped's body, his massless form entering the body with only light burns to mark his entrance. His head filled the biped's own without occupying physical space, his arms, his torso, his legs, likewise flowing into the biped's.

His awareness was now that of the biped's, his senses fed by information coming from the new body. He saw what the boy saw, heard what he heard, felt what he felt, smelled what he smelled.

He looked about, taking control of the body and moving it, and saw the alien landscape through his new eyes. He saw trees and bushes swaying in the wind. He saw dust being blown about. He saw the harsh white light cast by his ship. He saw the energy discharges snaking from the ship, reaching the ground in several places.

He felt the boy's heart beating rapidly, felt panic and excitement. He felt the rushing wind, blown about by his descending ship. He felt pain all over the body, caused by his entry.

He knew, in an instant, everything the boy knew. It was strange; one second he knew nothing, the next, everything.

The boy was indifferent to others of his kind, an indifference that sometimes turned to resentment, as he felt he had been isolated by others of his kind. He lived with them, took part in the hunting rituals, but only out of survival, for there was safety in numbers. As he had seen from afar, this was a species that, for the most part, lived in groups.

He knew their beliefs, their fears. Knowing what they knew, he could easily interpret events as they would have seen them. He knew that his arrival, unlike anything that had been witnessed before, would have inspired fear and terror.

He looked up at his descending ship, continuing to shield his eyes from the light and the wind-borne dust, stones and twigs, narrowing his eyelids to a squint. Like his original body, these creatures had sensitive eyes. Going to the trouble of obtaining a new body only to have it blinded before his ship landed would simply not do, even if he had the technology to repair the damage.

The ship would land soon. His last mental command had been to open a lower access hatch to allow himself to re-enter his vessel once it landed.

The boy's name, he knew, was Ra. It would suffice as a new designation for himself.

* * *

Ra turned away from his ship and from the wind and dust, deciding that if he was just to stand and wait, he might as well have his back to the wind, so he would not damage his eyes.

He looked down at his new hands as the ship descended, the desert dust still swirling around him. He clenched the digits, five on each hand, and then opened them.

He saw that the boy's skin had taken on a blue glow that was fading, an aftereffect of his incorporation into the host body. He wondered if the glow would ever return.

It did. His skin glowed. It brought with it a slight sense of warmth in the host body.

He found he could control it at will, his skin glowing blue and fading on demand. He could also control the intensity of the glow – to a point. If he glowed too brightly, he felt the host body slipping away, as if he was leaving it.

Interesting, but he wondered what use this could serve.

Above him, the ship continued downward, descending to its preprogrammed landing site a short distance away.

Finally, the ship settled on the desert surface. A door opened, allowing Ra ingress into his vessel. When the winds died down and the dust finally settled, Ra re-entered his ship.

* * *

Within his ship, he looked around with his new eyes. Everything looked... the same. The boy's vision was similar to his own; colour, depth perception, adjustment to focus on objects at varying distances.

Ra walked over to a mirrored surface, observing his new body in the mirror. The skin was caked with dust from the small storm whipped up by the descending ship, but he could still see that the boy's skin was marked with pigments. The hair on top of the boy's head was tangled, and also caked with dust.

He glowed again as he looked in the mirror. All over the boy's body, the light brown skin took on a blue radiance. The glow grew more intense, then faded. Intense, then weak. Then he stopped altogether.

Ra regarded his new face in the mirror, looking into the reflection of his eyes. The eyes were white, with a pigmented area surrounding a pupil. He knew that this race considered eye contact significant. Looking into the eyes was considered a sign of seriousness, of intent, but also a threat. A sign of intimidation. He wondered if...

The host's eyes, and only the host's eyes, glowed blue-white. With increasing intensity, the skin of the face around the eyes also glowed. He knew that a member of this species would have found this particularly unnerving.

He turned to a monitor, looking down at the alien landscape. The bipeds were still visible, but only barely, tiny specs in the distance. He knew that the people were terrified – they had fled in panic, and he knew that they would have seen nothing like his ship, for his arrival was, quite literally, otherworldly.

* * *

From the author: This work is based on the movie and its novelisation by Devlin and Emmerich; hence, Ra is _not_ a Goa'uld. To reinforce this, I have incorporated the Unas and 'primitive' Goa'uld from the season 4 episode _The First Ones_. This usage of both movie and series elements is why I have chosen to place this in the crossovers section, as opposed to being 'purely' _Stargate _or 'purely' _SG-1._

We clearly see that Ra's original form is an alien that vaguely resembles a Roswell Gray (minus the large black eyes), as opposed to the 'snakes' in the later TV series. (The series, written by different people, has evolved to the point where I consider it to be only loosely based on the original movie.) As for the Asgard Famrir, from what I have been able to read, this idea came from an RPG; the creation of Famrir appears to be an attempt to 'retcon' the alien's different appearance in the movie in order to reconcile it with the series, effectively looking at the movie from a series-centric point of view.

Since his body is described as "decaying and weak", and given the time taken for his travels (even with FTL drive), I assumed that the alien was capable of controlling his ship mentally while in stasis or suspended animation via some sort of connection, perhaps from within the sarcophagus if he already had it at this stage.

Mind controlled technology isn't much of a stretch, since Ra is strongly implied to have mind controlled technology in the movie anyway: his mask, which is incorporated into his head, does not have an external trigger like the Anubis and Horus helmet-masks, and he is not seen to externally manipulate his hand device in order to select between 'knock someone across the room' and 'place device on forehead to kill' 'settings', implying some sort of mental control.

Thanks for reading! Please leave feedback!


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